• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.717-731
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• 2016

In orthopedic surgery and more especially in total arthroplastie of hip, the fixing of the implants generally takes place essentially by means of constituted surgical polymer cement. The damage of this materiel led to the fatal rupture and thus loosening of the prosthesis in total hip, the effect of over loading as the case of tripping of the patient during walking is one of the parameters that led to the damage of this binder. From this phenomenon we supposed that a remain of bone is included in the cement implantation. The object of this work is to study the effect of this bony inclusion in the zones where the outside conditions (loads and geometric shapes) can provoke the fracture of the cement and therefore the aseptic lousing of the prosthesis. In this study it was assumed the presence of two bones -type inclusions in this material, one after we analyzed the effect of interaction between these two inclusions damage of damage to this material. One have modeled the damage in the cement around this bone inclusion and estimate the crack length from the damaged cement zone in the acetabulum using the finite element method, for every position of the implant under the extreme effort undergone by the prosthesis. We noted that the most intense stress position is around the sharp corner of the bone fragment and the higher level of damage leads directly the fracture of the total prosthesis of the hip.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.479-504
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• 2009

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have been recently embraced in long span cable-supported bridges, in which buffeting-induced stress monitoring is one of the tasks to ensure the safety of the bridge under strong winds. In line with this task, this paper presents a SHM-oriented finite element model (FEM) for the Tsing Ma suspension bridge in Hong Kong so that stresses/strains in important bridge components can be directly computed and compared with measured ones. A numerical procedure for buffeting induced stress analysis of the bridge based on the established FEM is then presented. Significant improvements of the present procedure are that the effects of the spatial distribution of both buffeting forces and self-excited forces on the bridge deck structure are taken into account and the local structural behaviour linked to strain/stress, which is prone to cause local damage, are estimated directly. The field measurement data including wind, acceleration and stress recorded by the wind and structural health monitoring system (WASHMS) installed on the bridge during Typhoon York are analyzed and compared with the numerical results. The results show that the proposed procedure has advantages over the typical equivalent beam finite element models.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.211-231
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• 2014

Prestressed hollow-core slabs (HCS) are widely used for modern lightweight precast floor structures because they are cost-efficient by reducing materials, and have excellent flexural strength and stiffness by using prestressing tendons, compared to reinforced concrete (RC) floor system. According to the recently revised ACI318-08, the web-shear capacity of HCS members exceeding 315 mm in depth without the minimum shear reinforcement should be reduced by half. It is, however, difficult to provide shear reinforcement in HCS members produced by the extrusion method due to their unique concrete casting methods, and thus, their shear design is significantly affected by the minimum shear reinforcement provision in ACI318-08. In this study, a large number of shear test data on HCS members has been collected and analyzed to examine their web-shear capacity with consideration on the minimum shear reinforcement requirement in ACI318-08. The analysis results indicates that the minimum shear reinforcement requirement for deep HCS members are too severe, and that the web-shear strength equation in ACI318-08 does not provide good estimation of shear strengths for HCS members. Thus, in this paper, a rational web-shear strength equation for HCS members was derived in a simple manner, which provides a consistent margin of safety on shear strength for the HCS members up to 500 mm deep. More shear test data would be required to apply the proposed shear strength equation for the HCS members over 500 mm in depth though.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.589-604
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• 2013

Identification of damage has become an evolving area of research over the last few decades with increasing the need of online health monitoring of the large structures. The visual damage detection can be impractical, expensive and ineffective in case of large structures, e.g., offshore platforms, offshore pipelines, multi-storied buildings and bridges. Damage in a system causes a change in the dynamic properties of the system. The structural damage is typically a local phenomenon, which tends to be captured by higher frequency signals. Most of vibration-based damage detection methods require modal properties that are obtained from measured signals through the system identification techniques. However, the modal properties such as natural frequencies and mode shapes are not such good sensitive indication of structural damage. Identification of damaged jacket type offshore platform members, based on wavelet packet transform is presented in this paper. The jacket platform is excited by simple wave load. Response of actual jacket needs to be measured. Dynamic signals are measured by finite element analysis result. It is assumed that this is actual response of the platform measured in the field. The dynamic signals first decomposed into wavelet packet components. Then eliminating some of the component signals (eliminate approximation component of wavelet packet decomposition), component energies of remained signal (detail components) are calculated and used for damage assessment. This method is called Detail Signal Energy Rate Index (DSERI). The results show that reduced wavelet packet component energies are good candidate indices which are sensitive to structural damage. These component energies can be used for damage assessment including identifying damage occurrence and are applicable for finding damages' location.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.791-808
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• 2013

The main purpose of this paper is to develop seismic fragility curves for existing reinforced concrete, RC, buildings based on the post earthquake field survey and the seismic performance using capacity design. Existing RC buildings constitute approximately 65% of the total stock in Algiers. This type of buildings, RC, was widely used in the past and chosen as the structural type for the future construction program of more than 2 millions apartments all over Algeria. These buildings, suffered moderate to extensive damage after the 2003 Boumerdes earthquake, on May 21st. The determination of analytical seismic fragility curves for low-rise and mid-rise existing RC buildings was carried out based on the consistent and complete post earthquake survey after that event. The information on the damaged existing RC buildings was investigated and evaluated by experts. Thirty four (34) communes (districts) of fifty seven (57), the most populated and affected by earthquake damage were considered in this study. Utilizing the field observed damage data and the Japanese Seismic Index Methodology, based on the capacity design method. Seismic fragility curves were developed for those buildings with a large number data in order to get a statistically significant sample size. According to the construction period and the code design, four types of existing RC buildings were considered. Buildings designed with pre-code (very poor structural behavior before 1955), Buildings designed with low code (poor structural behavior, between 1955-1981), buildings designed with medium code (moderate structural behavior, between 1981-1999) and buildings designed with high code (good structural behavior, after 1999).

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.27-51
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• 2013

During cleaning steps, ultrafiltration membranes are mechanically and chemically stressed. This may result in membrane degradations and failures. In this paper, polysulfone membranes were used to evaluate membrane deteriorations by commercial detergents in static conditions. Ageing of the membrane was simulated by immersing samples in solutions containing commercial detergents with various concentrations, temperatures and times defined by experimental designs. Indeed, an innovative approach in the chemical membranes ageing researches, based on methodological tools, was used in order to achieve significant ageing experiments without using an accelerated ageing protocol. The macroscopic changes were monitored by permeability measurements and mechanical strength tests coupled with a microscopic characterization by ATR-FTIR and HRSEM. The present work details results obtained for three commercial detergents: an alkaline, an acidic and an enzymatic detergent. It was found that the detergents used in the industrial advised conditions (concentration, temperature and time of contact) were not detrimental for membrane properties (permeability and elongation at break) and so for the quality of the produced water. Over the industrial cumulated time of contact, different ageing effects can be observed and compared with the ones induced by NaOCl.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.269-277
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• 2017

Recently, there has been significant interest in structural health monitoring for civil engineering applications. In this research, a specially designed tendon, proposed by embedding FBG sensors into the center king cable of a 7-wire strand tendon, was applied for long-term health monitoring of tensile forces on a ground anchor. To make temperature independent sensors, the effective temperature compensation of FBG sensors must be considered. The temperature sensitivity coefficient ${\beta}^{\prime}$ of the FBG sensors embedded tendon was successfully determined to be $2.0{\times}10^{-5}^{\circ}C^{-1}$ through calibrated tests in both a model rock body and a laboratory heat chamber. Furthermore, the obtained result for ${\beta}^{\prime}$ was formally verified through the ground temperature measurement test, expectedly. As a result, the ground temperature measured by a thermometer showed good agreement compared to that measured by the proposed FBG sensor, which was calibrated considering to the temperature sensitivity coefficient ${\beta}^{\prime}$. Finally, four prototype ground anchors including two tension ground anchors and two compression ground anchors made by replacing a tendon with the proposed smart tendon were installed into an actual slope at the Yeosu site. Tensile forces, after temperature compensation was taken into account using the verified temperature sensitivity coefficient ${\beta}^{\prime}$ and ground temperature obtained from the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA) have been monitored for over one year, and the results were very consistent to those measured from the load cell, interestingly.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.1003-1020
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• 2017

Estimation of groundwater inflow into underground opening is of critical importance for the design and construction of underground structures. Groundwater inflow into a pilot underground storage facility in China was estimated using analytical equations, numerical modeling and field measurement. The applicability of analytical and numerical methods was examined by comparing the estimated and measured results. Field geological investigation indicated that in local scale the high groundwater inflows are associated with the appearance of open joints, fractured zone or dykes induced by shear and/or tensile tectonic stresses. It was found that 8 groundwater inflow spots with high inflow rates account for about 82% of the total rate for the 9 caverns. On the prediction of the magnitude of groundwater inflow rate, it was found that could both (Finite Element Method) FEM and (Discrete Element Method) DEM perform better than analytical equations, due to the fact that in analytical equations simplified assumptions were adopted. However, on the prediction of the spatial distribution estimation of groundwater inflow, both analytical and numerical methods failed to predict at the present state. Nevertheless, numerical simulations would prevail over analytical methods to predict the distribution if more details in the simulations were taken into consideration.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.869-877
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• 2018

The continually growing demand for underground space in dense urban cities is also driving the demand for underground highways. Building the underground highway tunnel, however, can involve complex design and construction considerations, particularly when there exists divergence or convergence in the tunnel. In this study, interaction between two asymmetric noncircular tunnels-that is, a larger main tunnel and a smaller tunnel diverging from the main tunnel, was investigated by examining the distributions of the principal stresses and the strength/stress ratio for varying geometric conditions between the two tunnels depending on diverging conditions using both numerical analysis and scale model test. The results of numerical analysis indicated that for the $0^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$, $60^{\circ}$ diverging directions, the major principal stress showed an initial gradual decrease and then a little steeper increase with the increased distance from the left main tunnel, except for $90^{\circ}$ where a continuous drop occurred, whereas the minor principal stress exhibited an opposite trend with the major principal stresses. The strength/stress ratio showed generally a bell-shaped but little skewed to left distribution over the distance increased from the left larger tunnel, similarly to the variation of the minor principal stress. For the inter-tunnel distance less than 0.5D, the lowest strength/stress ratio values were shown to be below 1.0 for all diverging directions ($0^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$, $60^{\circ}$ and $90^{\circ}$). The failure patterns observed from the model test were found to be reasonably consistent with the results of numerical analysis.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.381-391
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• 2020

This study aimed to develop reference materials (RMs) for mortar that can simulate the initial flow characteristics with constant quality over a long period. Through the previous research on the development of RMs for cement paste, the combination of limestone, glycerol, and water was used as the basic matrix for developing RMs for mortar in this study. In addition, glass beads of three particle sizes (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mm) and ISO standard sand were selected as tentative candidates to derive fine aggregate substitutes. The mixture of glass beads could simulate the initial flow characteristics of mortar, but under the same mixing ratio, replicates showed an unstable tendency to indicate inconsistent values due to the generation of electrostatic properties between materials and equipment. On the other hand, the mixture using ISO standard Sand not only simulates the constant flow characteristics for a long period of time, but also shows stable results with little error in replicates. Therefore, limestone, glycerol, ISO standard sand, and water were finally determined as components that met the required properties of RMs for mortar. The effect of each component on the flow characteristics of RMs was analyzed. It was found that glycerol increased the cohesion between the particles of standard sand, resulting in a constant increase both in the plastic viscosity and yield stress. Both limestone and standard sand had a dominant effect on the yield stress. The relationships between various mortar mixing ratios and the corresponding mixing ratios of RMs were established. In addition, the results of the verification experiment showed that the rheological properties of the RMs obtained through the relationships correlated with various water/cement ratios and the fine aggregate volume fractions of mortar obtained with same manner. In other words, the RMs for mortar developed in this study can be used as standard samples because they can simulate the initial flow characteristics of mortar of various mixing ratios for a long period without any chemical changes.